5 of the Most Commonly Mispronounced Foods, According to Experts

Please, don't embarrass yourself.

Maggie McGlinchy

Image via Flickr/jeffreyw

Few experiences in life are more humiliating than sitting in a restaurant, looking nervously over your menu, and then proceeding to butcher the pronunciation of your meal while shamefully avoiding eye contact with your server. Luckily, a new book from Ross and Kathryn Petras—a brother and sister team who work as “scholars of stupidity,” according to Publisher’s Weekly—seeks to educate the masses by pointing out the most commonly mispronounced words in the English language.

Aptly titled You’re Saying it Wrong, and available on Ten Speed Press, the book unsurprisingly features a number of food items, from everyday gaffes like “croissant” (pronounced “kwah-SAHNT”), to fancier Italian fare like bruschetta (pronounced broo-SKEH-tah).

“A 2015 study conducted for Dictionary.com found that 47 percent of all Americans are irritated by mispronunciations and correct their family and friends,” an introduction for the book reads. “This is the prime reason for this book: to help us all avoid that unpleasant mortification that ensues when we attempt to use one of the surprisingly large number of words that we have absolutely no idea how to say properly.”

Well, the New York Post compiled some of the most crucial food and beverage blunders from the book, and now you have no excuse to mispronounce the word gyro ever again.

Gnocchi [NYAW-kee]

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"Online food delivery service Eat 24 puts gnocchi in their top-10 list of mispronounced food words. The problem is that the Italian gn actually has an ny sound."

Pho [fuh]

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"Here’s a well-known foodie joke to remind you how to pronounce these delicious Vietnamese noodles: Q: What do you call a line in a Vietnamese noodle shop? A: Pho queue."

Quinoa [KEEN-wah]

Image via Flickr/James Cohen

"Another one of the most mispronounced food words, quinoa looks like it should be pronounced “KWIN-oh-ah” not “KEEN-wah” — which is correct."

Gyro [YEE-ro]

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"Most Americans pronounce gyro with an English soft g sound (as with gyroscope, which has the same origin). But to the Greek guy slicing your meat, that sounds very, very wrong."

Moët & Chandon [Mwett eh SHA-doh]

Image via Flickr/Christell Paris

"Want to sound like a true sophisticate? Pronounce the final t in Moët."

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